<Begin Segment 20>

MA: So after the redress movement and everything, how did you, what did you do after that? How did you stay involved in the community struggles?

LN: After the redress... oh, boy. Unless I look at my, all my old notes, I can't really remember now what we did after that. It was more what to do, what to do now. And it was... yeah.

MA: Did you -- I'm sorry, go ahead.

LN: No, it's okay, go ahead.

MA: Oh, I was just wondering if you started up shamisen, your music.

LN: Yes, I did. I did. I started teaching again, but I think more that we were thinking, "Gee, there must be something we should be doing," in terms of organizing. We felt like it just shouldn't stop like that. So I think NCRR... I think now it's called National Coalition for... I think the name slightly changed because they wanted to change with the time. It's not a reparations, redress and reparations period anymore. But those were some of the kind of things that we wanted to think of, community empowerment, community whatyoucall has to continue. Because there's always something. There's always new issues. But somehow, I don't know what they're doing because I retired. I used to just drive from South Bay to downtown all the time, at night, meetings and this and that, weekends, all weekends we used to be out there. It's funny because my mother, my parents used to live in the front house. We bought a two-owner property so they can live in front. And my mother used to look out the window and say, "Going out again?" I said, "Yeah, we're going to have to go out to a meeting." And she used to say, "Oh, drive carefully now." [Laughs] But it was like we were constantly doing that, right? But after the redress, things quieted down a bit. But then we were afraid that NCRR -- you know how sometimes it dies out? We didn't want that to happen. And I think right now they're in pretty good shape. There's some people, I mean, they're new leadership and all that, but I think they're... I don't know what the issues are now, really. I haven't kept up, except if I see Alan Nishio, because he lives in Gardena, too. So if I see him, then I'll always ask him.

MA: But your son is still involved in organizing, right? In the Little Tokyo Service...

LN: Oh, Service Center?

MA: ...Center?

LN: But they're not doing... I don't know. It's pretty limited, I think, in terms of organizing. He was always an activist, so I think it must be kind of hard for him not to. [Laughs] But I think there are limitations now.

MA: To being an activist, you mean?

LN: Yeah, and then maybe the issues, too, depending on what the issues are. I don't know if there are any. There was never the issue like redress.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.